A - 51 The Interaction of Social Cognition Deficits and Personality Change in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

Abstract

Small studies have suggested individuals with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) may have socioemotional deficits (i.e., poor emotion recognition and mentalizing). However, consideration has not been given to the interplay of social cognition and personality changes. The present study used multiple personality and social cognition measures to identify neurologically-driven socioemotional changes in PSP. Data was collected from 177 individuals: 77 with PSP and 100 older healthy controls (HC). The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) measures patients' comprehension of emotional videos (Emotion Evaluation Test: EET) and everyday social interactions (Social Inference Enriched: SI-E). Premorbid and current personality was reported by informants using the Interpersonal Adjectives Scale (IAS) and the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Groups were compared controlling for age and sex; statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. PSPs displayed impairment in reading emotions on the TASIT-EET (M:9.1 ± SD:2.66) and inferring others' intentions on the TASIT-SIE (44.8 ± 6.12) compared to HCs (11.5 ± 1.48; 53.8 ± 4.94). PSPs showed clinically (-1.5 SD) and statistically significant drops from premorbid levels in Extraversion (IAS current T: 37.0 ± 16.28; BFI: 20.1 ± 5.80) and IAS Dominance (39.9 ± 13.54). PSP patients showed significant deficits at multiple levels of emotion reading and theory of mind, impairing their comprehension of social communication. This may in turn explain the observed declines in interpersonal dominance and extraversion, possibly reflecting loss of agency and sociableness with disease progression. These results reveal more clinically significant socioemotional deficits in PSP than are generally recognized, and suggest face-to-face social testing and informant reports of personality change can be valuable testing approaches.